Sectors

Sinohydro team wins $482m Argentine hydroelectric scheme

San Juan power company EPSE has awarded the construction of the $482m El Tambolar hydro project to a consortium made up of China’s Sinohydro, as well as Argentine engineers Panedile, SACD and the Petersen, Thiele & Cruz Group.

The consortium was in a two-horse race with Italian-Argentine conglomerate Techint and Argentine civil engineer Tesur. A third team, which included the China Gezhouba Group, was disqualified at an earlier stage, reportsBN Americas.

The project, on the San Juan river in west-central Argentina, was originally put at $750m.

The scope of the project includes construction of a dam, a spillway, a substation and a high-voltage transmission line. The project was awarded by power company EPSE, which has asked the winning consortium begin work within 45 days.

The project, which was first proposed in 1974, was in 2015 the subject of a $600m deal with Panedile and Power China. That agreement would have required the Chinese company to provide 85% of funding.

The project is expected to take five years to complete.

Image: The San Juan river in western Argentinia (Roskito/CC BY-SA 4.0)